Cider-Roasted Chicken
Cooking Light

3 quarts water
1 quart apple cider
1/4 cup kosher salt
1 tablespoon black peppercorns
1 bay leaf
1 (6-pound) roasting chicken
2 cups apple cider
1 large onion, peeled and halved
4 flat-leaf parsley sprigs
4 garlic cloves, peeled

Combine the first 5 ingredients in a saucepan; bring to a boil, stirring until salt dissolves. Remove from heat; cool completely. Pour brine into a 2-gallon zip-top plastic bag. Add chicken; seal. Refrigerate 8 hours or overnight.

Preheat oven to 400�.

Bring 2 cups cider to a boil in a small saucepan over medium-high heat. Cook until cider has thickened and reduced to 1/4 cup (about 15 minutes).

Remove chicken from bag; discard brine. Pat chicken dry with paper towels. Place the onion halves, parsley, and garlic into cavity. Lift wing tips up and over back; tuck under chicken. Tie legs. Place chicken on rack of a broiler pan. Bake at 400� for 1 hour and 30 minutes or until thermometer registers 175�. (Carefully remove and discard skin.) Baste chicken with half of reduced cider; return to 400� oven for 10 minutes. Remove from oven; baste with remaining cider reduction.

Serve with juices, if desired.

Yield: 8 servings (serving size: about 4 ounces chicken and about 1 tablespoon jus)

Chocolate Cheesecake

Prep time: 15 minutes
Ready in: 5 hours 5 minutes
Serves: 10-12

Ingredients:

CRUST

1 cup chocolate wafers crumbs
3 Tbsp sugar
3 Tbsp butter or margarine, melted

FILLING

2 pkg. (8oz each) Philadelphia Cream Cheese softened
3/4 cup sugar
1 cup melted chocolate chips
1 tsp vanilla
2 eggs

Preparation

Crust: Mix crumbs, sugar and butter, press onto bottom of 9-inch springform pan Bake for 10 minutes @ 350.

Filling: INCREASE oven temperature to 375 degrees F.

Beat cream cheese, sugar cocoa and vanilla in large bowl with electric mixer until well blended. Add eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Pour into prepared crust. Place entire cheesecake pan in a hot water bath. Bake for 30-40 minutes until a knife comes out clean.

Chocolate Banana Cream Pie

Ingredients:

1 deep dish pie crust, baked and cooled
2 (1 ounce) squares semisweet chocolate
1 tablespoon milk
1 tablespoon butter or margarine
2 bananas, sliced
1 1/2 cups cold milk
1 (4 serving size) package chocolate instant pudding and pie filling
1 1/2 cups nondairy whipped topping

Directions:

1. Combine chocolate, 1 tablespoon milk, and butter or margarine in a medium, microwave safe bowl. Microwave on high for 1 to 1 1/2 minutes, stirring every 30 seconds. Stir until chocolate is completely melted. Spread evenly in pie crust.

2. Arrange banana slices over chocolate.

3. Pour 1 1/2 cups milk into a large bowl. Add pudding mix, and beat with wire whisk for 2 minutes. Spoon over banana slices in crust.

4. Spread whipped topping over pie. Refrigerate 4 hours, or until set. Store in refrigerator.

Pesto Recipes

Basil Pesto

3/4 cup tightly packed fresh basil leaves
1/3 cup grated parmesan cheese
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
2 cloves of garlic
1/4 cup olive oil

Process first 6 ingredients in a blender until smooth, stopping to srape down sides. With blender on high, add oil in a slow steady stream. Makes 2/3 cup.

Slim Basil Pesto

2 cups loosely packed fresh basil
1/4 cup chicken broth
2 cloves garlic
1 tablespoon olive oil
1.5 teaspoon lemon juice
1/8 teaspoon pepper
1 oz. Parmesan cheese

Blend ingredients as above

Pasta w/ Basil Pesto Shrimp

Serves/Makes: 7-8 people

Ingredients:

1 pkg pasta (fettucini, linguini)
1 1/2 lbs uncooked shrimp, peeled and deveined
1/2 cup basil pesto sauce
2 tbsp garlic
1 tbsp olive oil
Parmesan cheese (optional)
salt and pepper to taste (optional)

Prepare the pasta to package directions. In a med. or large skillet, heat olive oil over med.-high. Add garlic and cook for about 1 min. Add shrimp and cook until they are all pink and have shrunk a little. After pasta has been drained, place it in a large bowl. Add shrimp and pesto to pasta, stir well so that the pesto evenly coats all the pasta and shrimp. Serve immediately, sprinkle parmesan cheese and salt and pepper on top if you like. Also works with grilled chicken

Blackened Chicken Salad with Honey Mustard Dressing

This recipe is a knock-off from a chain store, probably Applebees. I don't remember where I originally found it, possibly Top Secret Recipes.

Dressing:
1/4 cup fat free mayonnaise
1/4 cup Dijon mustard
1/4 cup honey
1 tablespoon prepared mustard
1 tablespoon white vinegar
1/8 teaspoon paprika

Chicken Marinade:
1 cup water
3 tablespoons lime juice
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1/2 tablespoon Worcestershire

Cajun Spice Blend:
1/2 teapoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon black pepper 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
2 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves

Salad:
8 cups chopped iceberg lettuce
1/2 cup shredded red cabbage
1/2 cup shredded carrot
1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1 large tomato, diced
1 cucumber, diced
1 hardboiled egg white, diced

Make dressing by combining ingredients in a small bowl. Mix well by hand. Store in a covered container in the refrigerator until salad is ready.

Combine water, lime juice, soy sauce, and Worcestershire in a medium bowl, and stir. Add the chicken breasts to the marinade, cover bowl and keep in refrigerator for several hours. Overnight is even better.

When chicken is marinated, preheat skillet over medium/high heat. Or, preheat your barbecue grill to medium/high heat. Combine the spices for the Cajun spice blend in a small bowl. Sprinkle a teaspoon of the spice blend over one side of each of the chicken breasts. Cover the entire surface of the chicken with spice. Spray the pan with nonstick spray, then sear the chicken breasts for 2-3 minutes on the side with the spices. While first side cooks, sprinkle another teaspoon of spice over the top of each chicken breast, coating that side as you did the other. Flip the chicken over, and sear for another 2-3 minutes. The surface of the chicken will be coated with a charred, black layer of flavor (aka blackened). Cover pan, reduce heat slight and cook until juices run clear.

While chicken is cooking prepare the salads by splitting the lettuce into two large bowls. Toss in the red cabbage and carrots. Mix the cheeses together, then top the salad with the cheeses and hardboiled egg. Sprinkle the diced tomato and cucumber on each salad. Slice the chicken breast, across each breast in 1/2-inch-thick slices. Spread the chicken over the top of the salad and serve immediately with dressing on the side.

Geocities closing

After using it as my website host for nearly 12 years, Geocities is
finally closing. Thus, I will likely send all my recipes here and
backup the rest on my harddrive until I figure out what to do.

Alfredo Sauce Light

Ingredients

1 onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
2 teaspoons vegetable oil
2 cups skim milk
1 cup chicken broth
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 (16 ounce) package fettuccini pasta
2 lbs assorted vegetables (broccoli, peppers, onions, etc)

Directions:

1. In a medium saucepan, heat oil over medium heat. Add onion and
garlic, and saute until golden brown.
2. In a small saucepan, stir together milk, chicken broth, flour, salt
and pepper over low heat until smooth and thick. Stir into onion
mixture. Continue to cook over medium low heat, stirring frequently,
until the sauce is thick. Stir in Parmesan cheese.
3. Meanwhile, cook pasta in boiling water. Add broccoli to the pasta
for the last several minutes of cooking Continue cooking until the
pasta is al dente.
4. Drain the pasta and vegetables, and transfer to a large bowl. Toss
with sauce.

Birthday and spring cards

Filled Pancakes

I had been enamored of the filled-pancakes pan (aka, an ebelskiver pan) in the William Sonomacatalog since last year, but could never justify buying such a thing that takes up space just for a once-and-awhile breakfast treat. However, with a giftcard in my hand and nothing else that I wanted or could afford at William Sonoma, I impulse bought it last week Monday.

I was impressed with my restraint in waiting till Sunday to try it out. I would have tried it on Saturday, but I was feeling digestive-system guilty yesterday morning, so opted for high-fiber cereal instead. Thus, after working hard this morning (including getting to the grocery store shortly after 6am) to get tonight's meal in the works, I decided it was time to try out the pan!

I used the recipe on the back of the packaging, with minor modifications:

Filled Pancakes Batter

1 c all purpose flour
1 T sugar
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
2 eggs, separated
1 c milk
2 T butter< melted

1/2 to 1 c assorted fillings (preserves, peanut butter, chocolate)

Mix dry ingredients. In a small bowl, whisk melted butter, milk, and egg yolks. Add to dry mix.

In a separate bowl, beat egg whites till stiff peaks form. Fold whites into rest of batter.

Spray pan or melt butter on medium high heat. Pan is read when there is bubbling of butter or spray. Add 1 T batter, 1 T filling, 1 T batter. Cook 2-3 minutes or until the pancake shifts. Using to wooden sticks or a spoon (try not to scrape the pan), flip the pancakes and cook another couple minutes. Remove using a spoon.

This is half of the recipe on the packaging. and made about 20 pancakes. I used strawberry preserves, peanut butter, and chocolate chips and liked all well enough, though the preserves were the best.

Grrr, I should have taken pictures, but I'll have to try to remember next time. All in all, quite a worthwhile purchase for $40 bucks and even better with a gift card.

Spring Flowers

I may still add titles, but this is good for now. I've been way behind on my card-making, so it's nice to have something done.

Strawberry Layer Cake

Here's the recipe for yummy cake I made for Easter 2009. I loved it and ate it all week long. The recipe is an adaptation (mostly a reduction) of a reader's submission that appeared in May 2009 Bon Appetite, p 16.

INGREDIENTS

Frosting

8 oz cream cheese

1/2 c butter

2 c powdered sugar

1/4 c seedless strawberry jam

6 Tbs heavy whipping cream

Cake

1.5 c cake flour

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

1.5 c sugar

1/2 c butter

3.5 eggs (I used 2 eggs, 3 egg whites)

1 Tbs vanilla

1/2 c sour cream

1/2 c seedless strawberry jam

1.25 lbs sliced strawberry

DIRECTIONS

Frosting: With an electric mixer, beat cream cheese and butter until smooth. Beat in sugar, then jam. In separate bowl, beal whipping cream until stiff peaks, then fold into butter mix. Chill, covered, 2 hours or until firm.

Cake: Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease 2 round 8-9 inch cake pans. Sift dry ingredients in a large bowl. In a med bowl, mix sugar and butter until fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla, then sour cream (beat 30 secs). Stir in flour mixture, beating well after each addition. Divide batter between pans.

Bake cakes until toothpick comes out clean, 45 min or so. Cool in pans for 10 min, then remove to cool completely.

To assemble: Cut cake in half, using serrated knife. Place first cake half, cut side up, on platter, spread 2 T jam, then strawberries, then frosting and top with other cake half. Repeat 2x. After placing top layer, frost completely and decorate with remaining or additional sliced strawberries. Chill until ready to serve.

Sourdough bread

Here are the pictures from the sourdough bread that I made last weekend. See a few posts below for the recipe link.

Valentines

Holiday Cards

I've been long overdue in posting cards, but better late than never:

Baby Card

Sunday Cooking

As you know, instead of resting yesterday I spent at least 6 hours online reading random blogs. Several featured recipes that got me thinking about cooking with my slow cooker and cooking in general, I guess. Despite the long list of things that I should be doing today, I decided to cook up a storm and have planned more big meals throughout the week. Cooking a different meal each day was also something I hadn't thought of in awhile and was reminded by the various whacko homemaker blogs that I'm also reading for whatever reason. Anyway, here's the list of what I have made today and hope to make later this week:

1. Sticky chicken with mango cumin couscous
- This recipe came from the December 2008 BBC Good Food Magazine. As you can see I made so many modifications that it made sense to rewrite the recipe, but my product is still similar to what's pictured. Today, because I didn't feel like making couscous, after tossing the mango with the cumin and rice wine vinegar, I added a little chicken stock, brought it to a boil, and tossed some cooked jasmine rice that I had on hand. I made this for lunch and have two portions left over.

2. Slow Cooker North Woods Turkey Wild Rice Soup
- This is simmering in the crockpot as I type. I used lefter turkey from Xmas that I had in the freezer.
Edited to add: This turned out a lot thicker than I had expected. Though it may have been partially because I didn't measure to wild rice, just eye-balled it, I added about 2 cups more chicken broth than the recipe called for and it was still very thing. Good, but thick.

3. Coffee-Braised Pot Roast with Caramelized Onions
- This will be made in the oven as soon as I rest for a bit and read the paper, hopefully for dinner this evening, although my turkey wild rice soup will also be done around the same time.
Edited to add: I cooked a smaller roast (<3 lbs) for about 2.5 hours and it was perfect. The coffee braising gives it almost a chocolate-like flavor. I can't wait to have this tomorrow night.

4. Irish Lamb Stew
- I will make this stew also using my slow cooker once I go to Trader Joe's later this week for boneless leg of lamb. This is what I had hoped to make this weekend in honor of St. Patrick's Day, but I didn't feel up to it.

5. Bread from scratch, maybe sourdough. I watched a number of how-tos on YouTube, including this one, but I think I'll try something that starts with yeast rather than trying to grow it naturally. I may try this one from good 'ole Emeril as it sounds straightforward enough. I bought an extra-large bag of flour today!

6. Kalua pig, also in the crockpot. The recipe is simply to make: Cook about 4 lbs of pork in the slow cooker with a tablespoon of liquid smoke for 8-10 hours or until the meat shreds easily with a fork. After shredding, salt liberally with sea salt or something more flavorful than table salt.
- I bought a pork shoulder today at the market when I couldn't find the leg of lamb. I may make this Wednesday or Thursday, or pot it in the freezer.

Food

I've been on a smoothie kick this week, as well as a grilled cheese sandwich one. On Wednesday, I made the first grilled cheese sandwich that I had made in years and had half for breakfast and the other half with chicken wings for dinner. On Friday, I wised up and made only a half sandwich for breakfast. The trouble was that I got distracted and burned the damn thing. Though successful on my second try, it defeated the purpose making a half-sandwich. I made another half (without burning) and polished if off with some leftover chicken chili for dinner, mmmmhhmm.

Back to the smoothies, which I first decided to make as a vitamin C kick to my cold:

1. Tuesday (p.m.) - Mango and orange juice
 - Yummy! I remember why I love smoothie. Wished that I had a banana.

2. Wednesday (a.m.) - rest of the smoothie from the night before.
- There was about a small juice glass full left. Good way to kick-start the a.m., especially after sleeping for 10 hrs.

3. Wednesday (p.m.) - peaches, orange juice, (banana?)
- Peaches weren't as sweet as the mango, so I was somewhat disappointed with this one. I also was stingy on the OJ, which is why there wasn't much left for breakfast.

4. Thursday (a.m.) - rest of the smoothie from the night before--very little left.

5. Thursday (p.m.) - strawberries, peaches, blueberries, orange juice, a little water to thin it out without too much orange flavor
- Still tart; again wished that I had added a banana.

6. Friday (a.m.) - rest of the smoothie from the night before
- Didn't make another smoothie for dinner the blender still needed soaking and the dishwasher was full. I think may also have been fever-ish as I remember chugging lots of water.

7. Saturday (a.m.) - strawberries, blueberries, banana, orange joice.
- Very good. I'm thinking of drinking what's left in the blender, rather than saving it for later.

It's shortly after noon and I've been up and online for about 2 hours...without coffee. I thought about brewing a pot while I was making my smoothie and making breakfast (two eggs, sunny-side, atop a toasted english muffin sprinkled with mixed cheddar/colby cheese), but decided that I didn't feel like it. Now I believe I'm feeling the beginnings of the dull ache of a caffeine headache, so I'd best attend to the situation.

More later as I've been reading random blogs....

Mango Chicken Stir Fry
(this is my husband's favorite recipe)

Ingredients
1 mango
1 red pepper
1 yellow or orange pepper
1 med onion
1.5 lb chicken breasts or thighs, skinless

Marinade
2-3 cloves garlic, minced 2 T soy sauce
1.5 tsp sugar
1 T corn starch
1 T rice wine vinegar
1 T oil

Sauce
3 T soy sauce
2 T rice wine vinegar
6 oz pineapple juice
.5 tsp crushed red pepper
1 T corn starch.

1. Whisk marinade together.

2. Chop chicken, peppers, and onion into bite-sized pieces. Marinate chicken while chopping veggies and starting the rice. Make about 1-2 cups uncooked rice.

3. Heat wok with about another tablespoon of oil. Saute onions, adding peppers once onions have begun to soften.

4. Remove veggies, keep warm. Mix sauce.

5. Saute chicken till fully cooked. Add mango for a minute or so until slight charring.

6. Return veggies to the wok, add sauce. Simmer for 5-10 minutes, adding additional corn starch, if needed.

7. Serve with rice.

Welcome to TheFishie's Kitchen

Hello and welcome to TheFishie's Kitchen--a virtual home for my recipe box, food/cooking/baking commentary, and other random thoughts. I created this blog when Geocities closed in May 2009, but importing my posts from my old blog was not seamless as some post were just dumped into one date, while others like the one immediately following this one in time, were transferred with a date. Thus, please bear with me as I attempt to organize, but trust that there are tasty things ahead.

Countdown Clock

http://www.timeanddate.com/counters/customcounter.html?month=03&day=01&year=2008&hour=0&min=00&sec=00&p0=103